I got in 7 flights today with the Opterra. It's a wonderful model. Very stable and smooth. It is also a real floater so it will make a great sailplane. It was a little clumsy to hand launch by myself. So I just put it in to SAFE mode, put the TX down, get a hold of the model, go to full throttle and just launch it. SAFE flies it out and I can leisurely grab the TX. Nice! I will be installing FPV soon as it will be a great platform.

I got my Optera on Saturday, the BNF version, and flew it twice on Sunday. This is a terrific plane, before even thinking about adding camera, FPV gear, etc.

It was a nice cool day, about 4C rising to about 10C on a sunny afternoon, our recent snow accumulation having mostly disappeared. There was convection, evidenced as light scattered cumulus.

I saw a couple of hawks and an osprey hanging around at high altitude, so I shut down the motor and did some soaring. I did not buy this to be a soaring machine (I have a Heron and a V-Tail for that purpose), however, it may end up doing a lot of that.

I used ordinary, cheap, 2200 mah 3cell battery, fully forward. It balanced right on the bumps.

I did as recommended, powered it up with the fuselage level and let the AR636 stabilize on that attitude.

For launch, I did exactly as they recommend in the manual, with no problems. My technique could use a bit of improvement, of course. Perhaps a touch more up Elevons to make it look a bit less dramatic, as it sinks a little as it is picking up airspeed and before my hand gets onto the stick. Or, is this the gyro system seeking its "level" attitude?

I was interested to see a note above where the pilot used its SAFE mode, hands-off, in the launch. Does that mean that you initialized the system with a slight nose-up attitude?

The only issue I have is learning to land in a shorter distance. Our field is over 600 feet long, yet I found it difficult to get down. The aircraft is clean, there was no wind, so without any spoilers to assist, attempting to force it down just ended up building up speed and when it gets down into ground effect it just doesn't want to quit! Of course, I was reluctant to really slow it down during the downwind and base legs, until I am sure that I won't stall or spin it. Up in the air. I tried unsuccessfully to stall or spin it, which is fine and dandy for my purposes with this aircraft.

I have been flying rc for almost 40 years, have designed, built, purchased many airplanes. I love flying wings in general and have designed an built a number of them. Without reservation, I can say that this aircraft is as good as it gets, for my purposes.

Today, before I fly again, I will add my customary small silver trim patched to a small portion of the leading edge. At great distances, these reflect any sunlight and have saved my bacon on numerous occasions. The black bands on the bottom of the wings are perfect, I always do this on my sailplanes and flying wings. But, with these kinds of aircraft, especially if they are otherwise white, their fins profile lets them disappear easily. Others have often asked me if I have strobe lights on my sailplanes, as they often flash while I am thermalling or turning.

My only gripe is that they refer you to the AR636 manual, which is NOT included. Plus, there is zero explanation of the AS3X. Very poor, IMHO.

DeerSlayer.
Thanks for the update!
Is it possible to remove all the lead weight up front and put a 3sLipo (size?) to balance?

I have not yet bothered to open up the nosecone, but I can see that there seems to be a weight in there. However, as I mentioned above, a standard 2200 mah, 3cell LiPo shoved as far forward as it can go, balances the aircraft right at the bumps. It flies perfectly, as is.

I will stick my Mobius on it sometime soon and see what that does to the CG - probably just move the battery back a bit.

The AS3X manual, as well as the manual for the Optera, stataes that one must not adjust things from the Tx:

Important: The Aileron, Elevator
and Rudder settings in the
transmitter must remain at their
factory default values. Settings for
reverse, sub trim, travel adjustment,
expo and dual rate must be done in
the App only.

So, if I want to adjust Expo at the Tx on, say, Elevator (which I have done), what is wrong with that, i,e, what is that interfering with on the AS3X system? I notice that the normal Trim is not on the "forbidden" list. Is altering as channel away from its midpoint via Trim interfering with AS3X? After all, there are perfectly good reasons why one may wish to re-trim on the ground or in the air. While we are at it, on power up initialization, when AS3X locks in its perceived "level" attitude, what if a Trim were NOT at its 0 position?

I do not intend to be carrying a laptop around whenever and wherever I fly.

The AS3X manual, as well as the manual for the Optera, stataes that one must not adjust things from the Tx:

Important: The Aileron, Elevator
and Rudder settings in the
transmitter must remain at their
factory default values. Settings for
reverse, sub trim, travel adjustment,
expo and dual rate must be done in
the App only.

So, if I want to adjust Expo at the Tx on, say, Elevator (which I have done), what is wrong with that, i,e, what is that interfering with on the AS3X system? I notice that the normal Trim is not on the "forbidden" list. Is altering as channel away from its midpoint via Trim interfering with AS3X? After all, there are perfectly good reasons why one may wish to re-trim on the ground or in the air. While we are at it, on power up initialization, when AS3X locks in its perceived "level" attitude, what if a Trim were NOT at its 0 position?

I do not intend to be carrying a laptop around whenever and wherever I fly.

Or you could have a smart phone APP for AS3X and the cable. From experience with AS3X in other recent Eflite products (eg. Radian XL), any trim adjustments made while flying must be left "hands off" for 3 seconds for the stabilizer to register it. If the model requires a lot of trim adjustments, the next time the plane is initialized (next flight), the AS3X seems to forget all the previous trims and re-sets its own "0". Soon, you'll run out of trim adjustments on those tabs on your TX.
You can make all of the adjustments like expo, rate, trim, gyro gains, etc via the PC or APP but some features are adjustable on the TX, like rates, expo.